I read a lot of good books in 2016 but I still have to give The Raven King my "prize" for fav print book of 2016 AND fav sequel of 2016 AND fav audiobI read a lot of good books in 2016 but I still have to give The Raven King my "prize" for fav print book of 2016 AND fav sequel of 2016 AND fav audiobook of 2016.

I took the day off from work so that I could buy and read the print book the day it was published - such a pleasure! No spoilers: I will just say I love the way Maggie Stiefvater ended the Raven Cycle quartet.

A little later, when the audiobook became available via my public library, I listened to it and loved the book - and performer Will Paton - all over again.

I love these characters, I love their four-book story, and I love Will Paton's way of reading them aloud to me....more

Jeff Zentner was my favorite new-to-me author of 2016. I read his book, The Serpent King, over breakfast on the morning that Maggie Stiefvater's The RJeff Zentner was my favorite new-to-me author of 2016. I read his book, The Serpent King, over breakfast on the morning that Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven King was due to drop and I was waiting for my local bookstore to open. I lost all track of time, reading and occasionally weeping (quietly, of course! public place!) until I finished The Serpent King and now it gets a spot on my Favs of 2016 GoodReads shelf.

It's told from the points-of-view of three outsider friends making the transition from high school to life after high school. They are: Lydia - a college-bound fashion blogger; Dill - a musician and the son of a snake-handling Pentecostal preacher; and Travis - a Tolkien-esque reader-writer.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

"Oh, I could tell you a thing or two about having friends that are off-brand." (p. 52)

This was my favorite re-read of 2016. Actually, the weekend after the November 2016 American presidential election, I cocooned and re-read my whole boThis was my favorite re-read of 2016. Actually, the weekend after the November 2016 American presidential election, I cocooned and re-read my whole boxed set of the Ramona books. I needed some seriously comforting comfort reads and these helped a lot. Ramona can be infuriating sometimes to her friends and family but her creativity and spunk also inspire me, and I love how author Beverly Cleary makes us sympathize and cheer for her....more

This was my favorite graphic novel, and maybe my favorite memoir, too, of all that I read in 2016. I loved the humor, the relationships, the artwork,This was my favorite graphic novel, and maybe my favorite memoir, too, of all that I read in 2016. I loved the humor, the relationships, the artwork, the 1970s setting (my childhood!) and more. My co-worker says, and I agree: do not skip the author's note at the end, especially the insight that "our differences are our superpowers."...more

I reviewed this for School Library Journal's Adult Books for Teens column (http://www.slj.com/2016/08/teens-ya/n...) before the "Hidden Figures" movieI reviewed this for School Library Journal's Adult Books for Teens column (http://www.slj.com/2016/08/teens-ya/n...) before the "Hidden Figures" movie came out, and I have not yet read the Hidden Figures book, but I would still very highly recommend Rise of the Rocket Girls by itself or as a companion read to Hidden Figures. It is my favorite nonfiction read of 2016....more

**spoiler alert** This psychological thriller/mystery with its fascinating details and many plot twists was such a satisfying read! It is about a univ**spoiler alert** This psychological thriller/mystery with its fascinating details and many plot twists was such a satisfying read! It is about a university sociology professor who was shot in the pelvis by a student outside her office ten months ago. As the book opens, she is painfully making her way back to work for the first day of a new semester, still in the dark about how, or even if, the student knew her. She did not know him, let alone have any history with him as the media loved to surmise.

I love that the main character is a bit of a bitch sometimes, NOT matronly or soft at all. She had a fling with her department chair, refused to marry him. Had a fling with her bartender, now he is repulsed by her. A student tries to have a fling with her but she manages to keep that boundary in place. A journalist kisses her near the end. She is still going to have a sex/love life, even with her scars.

I loved Lori Rader-Day's second creepy thriller, Little Pretty Things, too. It is even more "discussable" and it is set in Indiana so it was a toss-up which Rader-Day book to include on my GR bookshelf of 2015 favorites.

**spoiler alert** This graphic novel is truthful and smart and fun to read. It is probably meant for a younger audience than YA but I want to remember**spoiler alert** This graphic novel is truthful and smart and fun to read. It is probably meant for a younger audience than YA but I want to remember it for middle school and upper elementary people. Plus, I loved it for myself!

Astrid assumes her best friend will want to go to skate camp with her after they attend a Rose City Rollers roller derby game at the end of 5th grade. Astrid feels betrayed and abandoned when Nicole would rather go to ballet camp, especially since she will be going with a girl that has always been mean to Astrid. Nicole goes to skate camp anyway by herself and eventually learns a lot about how not to give up, about the complexity of feelings and about how to be a friend and a person. (In a fun, endearing way, not like an after-school special.)

I love that Astrid's mom works as a librarian at the local university. I also love that while Nicole and her new friends like boys, makeup, clothes, the mall, etc., Astrid and her new friends like skating, dyed hair, rainbow socks, helmets & other gear, and skating in the park or anywhere. I also love that the author shows that ballet is tough, too, especially on feet. Ballerinas have to be as tough in some ways as derby girls do.

This book make me think about what my derby name would be. A Facebook friend suggested "The Great White Hope" but I like "Abandon All Hope" better. This book also made me want to see Indianapolis' Naptown Rollers and/or the Bloomington, Indiana roller derby team play some time.

Natalie Goldberg has been a writing mentor to me since I first read her book, Writing Down the Bones back in the 1980s, although I've only spoken withNatalie Goldberg has been a writing mentor to me since I first read her book, Writing Down the Bones back in the 1980s, although I've only spoken with her once, when I attended a reading she gave in California four or five years ago. I love that writing is a kind of zen practice for her.

The True Secret of Writing was published in 2013 but I only got around to reading it in 2015. It is my favorite nonfiction book of all the nonfiction I read in 2015. My full list of 2015 favorites, plus honorable mentions, is on my reading blog: http://www.indyreadinghabit.com/2016/.......more

**spoiler alert** When the manager of the Fairfield Inn in Muncie, Indiana called me the week before the 2015 Midwest Writers Workshop to say my reser**spoiler alert** When the manager of the Fairfield Inn in Muncie, Indiana called me the week before the 2015 Midwest Writers Workshop to say my reservation had to be transferred to a different hotel, I was furious. But when I calmed down, I remembered the scene in this book that said all hotels helped each other out with overbooking because they never knew when the shoe would be on the other foot, or something like that.

That got me wishing I could re-read the whole book. My local public library no longer has it so I requested it through inter-library loan. A tattered, water-stained copy came to me from a public library in Illinois.

The book was a pleasure to read again. When I read it for the first time – sometime in the 1970s? when I found it on my father's bookshelves? – I was fascinated by the behind-the-scenes, insider look into the then-relatively-current hotel industry. When I read it again now, in 2015, I am fascinated by what has changed and what hasn’t in terms of feminism, racism, and technology.

I’d like to have my own copy of this book!

Anyway, here is that paragraph:

“The most miserable moment in any hotel manager’s life was explaining to indignant would-be guests, who held confirmed reservations, that no accommodation was available. He was miserable both as a human being and also because he was despondently aware that never again – if they could help it – would the people he was turning away ever come back to his hotel.” (p. 65)

Well, wait. I guess that passage doesn’t talk about hotels helping each other. But anyway, I bet that’s what the Fairfield and the Comfort Inn do in Muncie.

I also realize, as I’m typing this, that when I read Hotel when I was younger, I identified with Peter, the manager, much more than I did with Christine, the woman who was the assistant of the hotel’s owner and with whom Peter falls in love. At the end of the book, Peter gets to be executive vice-president in charge of the whole hotel. At last, he will get to hire the people he wants and implement the changes he knows the hotel needs to be successful and ethical in these modern times.

No one at the big meeting announcing the new ownership and management talks about what Christine will get to do. She slips an adoring love note in Peter’s pocket and goes home to her apartment to wait for him while he handles a few more emergencies. He handles all of the details related to the elevator emergency, the hit-and-run by British gentry and more. On the last page of the book he remembers the note in his pocket, reads it, and gets another satisfaction: he gets the girl.

Hotel is historical fiction now and offensive in a lot of ways – the way the near-rape of a young woman in the hotel is (not) handled! Sheesh! – but I still enjoyed re-reading it.

This is the richly satisfying sequel to the richly satisfying The Diviners. The sinister man in the stovepipe hat still lurks in the background but thThis is the richly satisfying sequel to the richly satisfying The Diviners. The sinister man in the stovepipe hat still lurks in the background but the main horror in this installment of the detailed series is the legion of soul-sucking somethings that haunt an abandoned subway station, and an unexplainable "sleeping sickness" that may or may not be related. Henry, the pianist/composer from the first book, is revealed as a dreamwalker, ie, able to do a kind of lucid dreaming. It wipes him out so his friend Vera urges him to set an alarm clock and to not go under very frequently. But he discovers his long-lost first boyfriend in a dream and can't resist going back to spend time with him. Meanwhile, each of the entwined stories of the other various characters from the first book expand around and through all this, bringing the group of young adults that seem to all be "Diviners" into sharper individual focus but without yet fully explaining how they all came to be or what their shared purpose is. I can hardly wait for the third and fourth books in the planned quartet! I would also like to listen to this as an audiobook because I loved the way January LaVoy performed The Diviners and she performs Lair of Dreams, too.

**spoiler alert** I chose this as my favorite audiobook of the 35 I listened to in 2015 because Eileen Stevens does such a great job of performing it.**spoiler alert** I chose this as my favorite audiobook of the 35 I listened to in 2015 because Eileen Stevens does such a great job of performing it. I would also like to read the print version because I wonder if I would like the book as much if reading it silently to myself.

In any case, I loved the respect that the author pays to the complexity of "fatness" and I loved going along with Willowdean on her journey to process her feelings about everything that was happening to her and around her. I loved that the author didn't have her lose weight to become happy. I also just enjoyed the story, which includes Willowdean and some new friends visiting a drag bar to get inspiration from a Dolly Parton impersonator. (They didn't know that's where they were going when they piled into a car for the road trip to a certain address.)

It wasn't a perfect book for me because there is an implication that the very fat aunt was afraid to live her life when actually she just didn't want to pay for two seats on an airplane. That kind of assumption and oversimplification drives me crazy sometimes in real life, too. But for the most part, I loved the truthfulness of this novel.

I am so jealous of the author for writing THIS as her first novel. It is funny, compassionate, romantic, perceptive, layered, authentic-sounding...a pI am so jealous of the author for writing THIS as her first novel. It is funny, compassionate, romantic, perceptive, layered, authentic-sounding...a pleasure to read for many reasons.

This novel sort of made me think of "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play" by Anne Washburn, which the Phoenix Theatre put on here in Indianapolis in 2015This novel sort of made me think of "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play" by Anne Washburn, which the Phoenix Theatre put on here in Indianapolis in 2015 and which I also enjoyed, because both are about a company of actor-musicians that spend their energy and other resources making sure that there is performance art in what is left of the world after a catastrophe destroys almost everything. Ultimately, reading this novel is a different experience from seeing that play, but I'd like to experience both again. I agree with the quote that one of the Traveling Symphony members has tattooed on her arms in Station Eleven: "Survival is insufficient."

This was my favorite re-read in 2014. I read this book in print form in 2003 when it first came out. Many, many teens raved to me about it then, and IThis was my favorite re-read in 2014. I read this book in print form in 2003 when it first came out. Many, many teens raved to me about it then, and I enjoyed it, too, although I didn't make time to read the two sequels, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing, when they came out.

I listened to the audiobook this year (2014) for a work assignment and loved the story all over again as interpreted by audiobook performer Josephine Bailey. I immediately listened to the audiobook sequels as well, and loved them, too. Although I haven't had teens asking me for this trilogy much lately, it definitely "wears well." I look forward to suggesting it to the current generation of teens at my library....more

Funny and yet science-y, sciency-y and yet funny, I most loved this book because it was such an exciting survival story. This was one of my three favoFunny and yet science-y, sciency-y and yet funny, I most loved this book because it was such an exciting survival story. This was one of my three favorite reads in 2014....more

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 reading log. I have decidOf the 80 books I read in 2012, this was my favorite re-read.

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 reading log. I have decided to "award" favorites in three categories for 2012: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, and fav re-read.)

"No woman intends to end up looking foolish but sometimes it happens." ('Sorry I didn't note a page number for this quote!)

I read this collection of interconnected short stories when it first came out in 2004 because it is based on true circus people's lives in Peru, Indiana, but I re-read it in the summer of 2012 after the author gave a reading at the new Indy Reads Books store in downtown Indianapolis. I loved it even more the second time. It is "literary" but accessible, and feels enough like a novel to be satisfying even if short story collections don't usually appeal to you.

I tweeted at the time that it is "About a specific small town in Indiana…and about all 'where you’re from's everywhere."

I also love that students at Ball State University, where the author now teaches creative writing, turned the book into a musical theatre piece that has been workshopped in New York City....more

Of the 80 books I read in 2012, this was my favorite new-to-me nonfiction print book.

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 rOf the 80 books I read in 2012, this was my favorite new-to-me nonfiction print book.

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 reading log. I have decided to "award" favorites in three categories for 2012: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, and fav re-read.)

“Attention! Do not leave your longings unattended.”

This little book reminds me a bit of SARK’s books except that it is all black and white. It is fun and inspiring! I copied the table of contents into my reading journal and added, "but there are lots of fun things fleshing out each item on the list, so it would be fun to have the book itself always handy."

I had hated the author's first book, Newspaper Blackout, because it was about how to make "poetry" out of blacking out other people's words. I hated it because it seemed so mindlessly disrespectful of other writers and of words themselves. However, I love this new book. THIS fun little book is actually quite respectful and inspiring. Or maybe I have just become more open- minded about mash-ups, fan art, fan fic, and so on. In any case, I agree with the advice in this book and would like to own a copy for myself. The author quotes from many other artists of all kinds as well as from his own experience.

Of the 80 books I read in 2012, this was my favorite new-to-me fiction print book.

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 readOf the 80 books I read in 2012, this was my favorite new-to-me fiction print book.

(I am writing this at the end of 2013 after re-reading my 2012 reading log. I have decided to "award" favorites in three categories for 2012: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, and fav re-read.)

Seraphina is a court musician in a queendom where dragons and humans co-exist relatively peacefully, if uneasily, due to a treaty that was signed years ago. Part of the treaty is that dragons promise to take human form when they are in the humans' lands. However, no one looks kindly on bi-racial beings, so Seraphina hides the fact that her mother was a dragon and that she herself has a few scales. A prince was found recently with his head bitten off, which is how dragons kill their prey, so emotions are running high, everyone is suspicious of everyone else, and the carefully-organized peace is in danger of being disrupted.

I love(!) this story and want to buy a copy for myself to re-read whenever I want. I imagine that it will be worth re-reading multiple times. The world-building in this beautifully written book is seamless, and richly detailed without ever becoming tedious. There are all kinds of good food for thought about truth and lies, and love.

One of my favorite long quotes from the book is "He did not know the truth of me, yet he had perceived something true about me that no one else had ever noticed. And in spite of that - or perhaps because of it - he believed me good, believed me worth taking seriously, and his belief, for one vertiginous moment, made me want to be better than I was." (p. 174)

My favorite short quote from the book is "Love is not a disease." ('Sorry I didn't make a note of its page number.)...more

Of the 80 books (including 33 audiobooks) I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me audiobook. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this yearOf the 80 books (including 33 audiobooks) I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me audiobook. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, fav audiobook, and fav re-read.)

I received this as a free downloadable audiobook through AudioFile's SYNC free summer downloads program in June. I didn't get around to listening to it until October but then I was hooked! Will Patton does an exceptionally good job as the audiobook performer (or reader or voicer or whatever you want to call it.) I was surprised to learn that he is the actor that played the creepy guy in the movie "Desperately Seeking Susan." In any case, he is high on my list of talent crushes as well as high on my list of fav audiobook performers.

I loved the Raven Boys story, too, and went out and bought my own print copies of both RB and its sequel, The Dream Thieves. I love both and in both formats!

The "Raven Cycle" is about teens seeking a legendary king whose body was supposedly carried from Wales to a hiding place on a ley line in Virginia, USA. I agree with the Kirkus reviewer that said, "Stiefvater's careful exploration of class and wealth and their limitations and opportunities astounds with its sensitivity and sophistication." Like that reviewer, I also love the characters and can hardly wait for Book 3!...more

Of the 80 books I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me nonfiction print book. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiOf the 80 books I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me nonfiction print book. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, fav audiobook, and fav re-read.) It resonated deeply with me and articulated a lot of things that I had been thinking about and trying to express, too.

I also listened to it as an audiobook on CDs in my car and that was a good experience, too. Hearing the author read aloud her own words made me laugh sometimes and understand more. ...more

Of the 80 books I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me fiction print book. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fictiOf the 80 books I read in 2013, this is my favorite new-to-me fiction print book. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, fav audiobook, and fav re-read.) I'll write more about it later, maybe, but meanwhile I went out and bought my own hardback copy of it so that I can hug it whenever I want....more

Of the 80 books I read in 2013, this was my favorite re-read. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiction, fav print nonficOf the 80 books I read in 2013, this was my favorite re-read. (I "awarded" favorites in four categories this year: fav print fiction, fav print nonfiction, fav audiobook, and fav re-read.)

I first read this story of nuns in a 1950s Benedictine abbey in England years ago, when I was in my early 20s, I think, when I happened to see the movie of it on TV. Re-reading the book this year, when I'm in my early 50s, was a fresh pleasure that offered fresh insights into both middle age and the choices we're all having to make about what to change and what to keep.

It also gave me a lot to think about as a middle manager. The Mother Abbess never got ten minutes of interrupted time to herself, yet she rarely put the white hankerchief on her door to say "do not disturb" because she felt this availability made her more connected to her community. I am very glad I am allowed to close my door when I need to! Philippa Talbot resisted being a manager once she left a successful business career and became a nun, but those were her gifts, and so God called her back to management anyway.

The Catholic bias is stronger, more apparent to me this time around, and I wonder what the young, "rebel" nuns and monks would think of social media.

Yes, this is definitely a book with lots to think about, a book worth re-reading. My personal reading log says "I read this almost all in one sitting one Sunday afternoon. An indulgence and maybe a mistake" (I'm sure I had life maintenance chores to take care of during that free time!) "but a treat, too."